Jesuit Worldwide Learning: new Academic Leadership

Geneva - Syrian computer science professor Dr. Oula Abu-Amsha is now Chief Academic Officer and responsible for the curricula of the international university programme 'Jesuit Worldwide Learning' (JWL). Not only does she have an impressive academic profile, she also has her own escape biography. JWL brings academic education to refugee camps and marginalized communities.

Many years of interdisciplinary experience

Dr. Abu-Amsha is a Syrian Professor of Computer Science and holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of St. Quentin in Yvelines, France. She brings with her many years of experience in educational technologies, curriculum development and crisis education. Previously, she worked for various educational institutions in the Syrian capital Damascus as well as for the World Bank and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia. She also holds a master's degree in statistics from Joseph Fournier University in Grenoble, France, and an engineering degree from the French School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. She specializes in applied business mathematics. After she had to flee her native Syria in 2014, she began to engage herself in the training of refugees.

"Impressive background" through her own escape story

Dr. Abu-Amsha has worked for the past three and a half years as an academic consultant for the Mosaic Education organization, where she was responsible for developing programs for Syrian refugee students in the Middle East. Since 2014, she has been a visiting scholar at various universities in Switzerland, including the University of Geneva and the School of Management and Engineering in the canton of Vaud.

Dr. Abu-Amsha was already involved in the Jesuit Worldwide Learning Community as a mathematics lecturer in 2016. What is your motivation? "JWL enables me to make an even more global contribution to the higher education of young people from communities left behind. JWL President Peter Balleis SJ: "With her impressive background and her desire to ensure that people on the margins have access to higher education, Dr Abu-Amsha brings a unique understanding of the learning context of JWL students. We are delighted to welcome her to the JWL leadership team as Chief Academic Officer".

On 7 June, Dr Abu-Amsha will join the Geneva Round Table on "European Migration Crisis, Brain-Drain and Brain-Gain", which will take place as part of the twelfth edition of the Partager le Savoir Conference.